• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.71 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2019

In global competition manufacturing companies have to produce modern, new constructions from advanced materials in order to increase competitiveness. The aim of my research was to develop a new composite cellular plate structure, which can be primarily used for structural elements of road, rail, water and air transport vehicles (e.g. vehicle bodies, ship floors). The new structure is novel and innovative, because all materials of the components of the newly developed structure are composites (laminated Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) deck plates with pultruded Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) stiffeners), furthermore combines the characteristics of sandwich and cellular plate structures. The material of the structure is much more advantageous than traditional steel materials, due mainly to its low density, resulting in weight savings, causing lower fuel consumption and less environmental damage. In the study the optimal construction of a given geometry of a structural element of a road truck trailer body was defined by single- and multi-objective optimization (minimal cost and weight). During the single-objective optimization the Flexible Tolerance Optimization method, while during the multi-objective optimization the Particle Swarm Optimization method were used. Seven design constraints were considered: maximum deflection of the structure, buckling of the composite plates, buckling of the stiffeners, stress in the composite plates, stress in the stiffeners, eigenfrequency of the structure, size constraint for design variables. It was confirmed that the developed structure can be used principally as structural elements of transport vehicles and unit load devices (containers) and can be applied also in building construction.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.767-774
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• 2022

A geometrically nonlinear stability analysis of sandwich annular plates with cellular core and particle-reinforced composite layers has been performed in the present research. The particles are powders of graphene oxide (GOP) which act as nanoscale filler of epoxy matrix. To this regard, Halpin-Tsai micromechanical scheme has been used to define the material properties of the layers. A square shaped core has been considered for which the material properties have been defined based on the relative density concept. Large deflection theory of thin shells has been selected to develop the complete formulation of sandwich plate. The geometrically nonlinear stability analysis of sandwich annular plates has been carried out by indicating that the buckling load is dependent on particle amount, thickness of layer and core relative density.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.709-718
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• 2023

The absence of an important portion of the web plate in steel beams with multiple circular perforations, cellular beams, causes the web plate to undergo distortions prior to and during lateral torsional buckling (LTB). The conventional LTB equations in the codes and literature underestimate the buckling moments of cellular beams due to web distortions. The present study is an attempt to develop analytical methods for estimating the elastic buckling moments of cellular beams. The proposed methods rely on the reductions in the torsional and warping rigidities of the beams due to web distortions and the reductions in the weak-axis bending and torsional rigidities due to the presence of web openings. To test the accuracy of the analytical estimates from proposed solutions, a total of 114 finite element analyses were conducted for six different standard IPEO sections and varying unbraced lengths within the elastic limits. These analyses clearly indicated that the LTB solutions in the AISC 360-16 and AS4100:2020 codes overestimate the buckling loads of cellular beams within elastic limits, particularly at shorter span lengths. The LDB solutions in the literature and the Eurocode 3 LTB solution, on the other hand, provided conservative buckling moment estimates along the entire range of elastic buckling.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.565-581
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• 2021

In this paper the buckling analysis of the nanoplate made of arbitrary bi-directional functionally graded (BDFG) materials with small scale effects are investigated. To study the small-scale effects on buckling load, the Eringen's nonlocal theory is applied. Employing the principle of minimum potential energy, the governing equations are obtained. Generalize differential quadrature method (GDQM) is used to solve the governing equations for various boundary conditions to obtain the buckling load of BDFG nanoplates. These models can degenerate into the classical models if the material length scale parameter is taken to be zero. Comparison between the results of GDQ method and other papers for buckling analysis of a simply supported rectangular nano FGM plate reveals the accuracy of GDQ method. At the end some numerical results are presented to study the effects of material length scale parameter, plate thickness, aspect ratio, Poisson's ratio boundary condition and side to thickness ratio on size dependent Frequency.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1417-1443
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• 2016

Cellular and castellated steel beams are used to obtain higher stiffness and bending capacity using the same weight of steel. In addition, the beam openings may be used as a pass for different mechanical fixtures such as ducts and pipes. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different parameters on both elastic and inelastic critical buckling stresses of steel web plates with openings. These parameters are plate aspect ratio; opening shape (circular or rectangular); end distance to the first opening; opening spacing; opening size; plate slenderness ratio; steel grade; and initial web imperfection. The web/flange interaction has been simplified by web edge restraints representing simply supported boundary conditions. A numerical parametric study has been performed through linear and nonlinear finite element (FE) models, where the FE results have been verified against both experimental and numerical results in the literature. The web plates are subject to in-plane linearly varying compression with different loading patterns, ranging from uniform compression to pure bending. A buckling stress modification factor (${\beta}$-factor) has been introduced as a ratio of buckling stress of web plate with openings to buckling stress of the corresponding solid web plate. The variation of ${\beta}$-factor against the aforementioned parameters has been reported. Furthermore, the critical plate slenderness ratio separating elastic buckling and yielding has been identified and discussed for two steel grades of DIN-17100, namely: ST-37/2 and ST-52/3. The FE results revealed that the minimum ${\beta}$-factor is 0.9 for web plates under uniform compression and 0.7 for those under both compression and tension.